Addition of Predental Nontraditional Student Forum?

bjhath · Sep 29, 2008

I have seen the Premedical Nontraditional Student forum and think that the predental community could benefit from the same.

Please vote and provide any constructive input you may have.

Contach · Sep 29, 2008

the lines are fuzzy between what is non traditional and traditional. It could result in cross posting and more difficult searching for pertinent information.

I am a clearly traditional applicant, but am not at all perturbed by the non-traditional applicant questions - frankly there aren't enough of them for us traditional applicants to care. So don't worry about bothering us. Now, I must look at it from a non-traditional applicant's perspective. I don't see this being of benefit to this populace for the fact that if the forum splits, not as many people will read the non-traditional applicant forum, and thus the advice you will receive will be less (albeit perhaps a bit more focussed), but not nearly as comprehensive as it is now. I don't think it's a good idea for either parties.

hoss19 · Sep 29, 2008

Contach said:
the lines are fuzzy between what is non traditional and traditional. It could result in cross posting and more difficult searching for pertinent information.

I am a clearly traditional applicant, but am not at all perturbed by the non-traditional applicant questions - frankly there aren't enough of them for us traditional applicants to care. So don't worry about bothering us. Now, I must look at it from a non-traditional applicant's perspective. I don't see this being of benefit to this populace for the fact that if the forum splits, not as many people will read the non-traditional applicant forum, and thus the advice you will receive will be less (albeit perhaps a bit more focussed), but not nearly as comprehensive as it is now. I don't think it's a good idea for either parties.

you underestimate the # of non-trads / post-baccs there are out there. plus you are canadian, so your opinion carries no weight.

bjhath · Sep 30, 2008

Contach said:
I don't see this being of benefit to this populace for the fact that if the forum splits, not as many people will read the non-traditional applicant forum, and thus the advice you will receive will be less (albeit perhaps a bit more focussed), but not nearly as comprehensive as it is now.

I agree with you in this respect. I don't really know if there are enough contributors for a nontraditional forum to stand on its own. There is the potential for overlap in information and fragmentation may not serve predentals well. But I thought I would toss up the idea and see what comes of it.

My thinking is that a nontrad forum could eventually provide a central location for information helpful for those not fresh out of college. Being a nontrad, sdn has provided me with a wealth of information on how to best approach changing careers to dentistry. This has included prereq suggestions, DAT study suggestions, application strengthening, moral support, and advice from all types of contributors (nontrads, predentals, students, and dentists). However, I have had to scour the forums for most of the information and think I have come close to breaking the sdn search function. It has been time consuming and, at times, frustrating.

I'd like to see how much interest there is in this idea now and for the future.

Enjoy.

Contach · Sep 30, 2008

hoss19 said:
you underestimate the # of non-trads / post-baccs there are out there. plus you are canadian, so your opinion carries no weight.

And you're American... So if you have no fighter planes on call, I like the rest of the world will immediately call you the arrogant, egocentric son-of-a bitch you are.

no hard feelings 🙂

bjhath · Sep 30, 2008

Am I going to have to separate you two? Can we keep it civil, please?

lemoncurry · Sep 30, 2008

Even though the non-trad forum is listed under the pre-med section, the description does not specify medicine. Therefore, it is safe to assume that it includes dental, pharm, etc.

While the dental forums are the second most popular forums on SDN, they just don't generate the same traffic the pre-allo forums do. Just looking at the history alone, there are over 4 times as many posts in pre-allo as pre-dent. My point is that while it may seem that there is a large enough base of non-trad predents, it is all rather relative, and the raw numbers probably would not be enough to justify a second non-trad forum which could pull traffic away from here.

bjhath · Sep 30, 2008

lemoncurry said:
Even though the non-trad forum is listed under the pre-med section, the description does not specify medicine. Therefore, it is safe to assume that it includes dental, pharm, etc.

Though the descriptor states the forum is for nontraditional students entering health professions, a quick search revealed very few (~0%) pre-dental posts and a vast number of (~100%) pre-med posts. This makes sense, since it is grouped under the premedical forums.

The fact that it is grouped under the premed forums is why I have never posted predent questions there and why I think a specific predental nontrad forum could be beneficial.

bjhath · Oct 1, 2008

bump.

Checking to see if anyone else has an opinion, or if this thread is dead.

Thanks.

lzbthcox · Oct 1, 2008

bjhath said:
Though the descriptor states the forum is for nontraditional students entering health professions, a quick search revealed very few (~0%) pre-dental posts and a vast number of (~100%) pre-med posts. This makes sense, since it is grouped under the premedical forums.

The fact that it is grouped under the premed forums is why I have never posted predent questions there and why I think a specific predental nontrad forum could be beneficial.

That is why I never posted there, maybe the answer is making sure people know it is for all non-trads instead of a new forum? I'm not sure. It would be nice to have a small corner to ask questions about housing/family etc. I'm not saying this forum doesn't help, but I too have almost broken the search function trying to find answers to questions and avoid reposts. :boom:

DrBowtie · Oct 1, 2008

bjhath said:
bump.

Checking to see if anyone else has an opinion, or if this thread is dead.

Thanks.

Just use the one under the pre-medical heading. It isn't exclusive to pre-medical non-trads, rather non-trads pursuing any health fields.

Lopyswine · Oct 1, 2008

also,

in the last 5 years the admissions process for dental school has become crazy.

no other professional school requires nearly as much prior work experience and/or knowledge as dentistry. we are required to do a ton of shadowing and/or assisting in order to be taken seriously as applicants.

Also, dentistry has been on a constant move from "teeth fixers" to "oral health professionals" with that in mind the schools are looking for much more well rounded applicants.

So what I am trying to say is:

what is a traditional applicant? In my class it seems like we ALL have different paths that have lead to dental school. Sure there are many 22 year old, recent grads, members of predent club, but there is also a HUGE number of "other" students.

The schools are looking for SO MUCH in an applicant, I dont think any of us are traditional, so don't break up the forum.

bjhath · Oct 2, 2008

DrBowtie said:
Just use the one under the pre-medical heading. It isn't exclusive to pre-medical non-trads, rather non-trads pursuing any health fields.

See my post above.

When I first started this journey towards dentistry, I perused/searched the nontrad forum first. I found very little information that helped me (a nontrad predental student) other than being redirected to the dental forums.

I think the fact that it is a subforum of the premedical forums drives a lot of non-medical nontrads to other forums, regardless of what the descriptor reads.

DrBowtie · Oct 2, 2008

bjhath said:
See my post above.

When I first started this journey towards dentistry, I perused/searched the nontrad forum first. I found very little information that helped me (a nontrad predental student) other than being redirected to the dental forums.

I think the fact that it is a subforum of the premedical forums drives a lot of non-medical nontrads to other forums, regardless of what the descriptor reads.

It isn't a subforum really of the premedical forums. It has been debated and moved multiple times from there to the interdisciplinary forums and back. I think one of the main reasons is the popularity of it given the quality of advice being dispensed there making it more prominent on the top of the forum listing.

I'm going to throw in my two cents although I'll defer to the dental mods, in saying that it probably doesn't warrant its own subforum here.

For general non-trad issues such as coping with going back to school, paying for it, family issues, I think the current non-trad forum will provide more than enough support and advice.

For more specific dental school issues, they can be answered within a thread in the pre-dental forums.

As a test for your idea however, why not create a generic non-trad pre-dents thread and see if it takes off?

bjhath · Oct 2, 2008

DrBowtie said:
It isn't a subforum really of the premedical forums. It has been debated and moved multiple times from there to the interdisciplinary forums and back. I think one of the main reasons is the popularity of it given the quality of advice being dispensed there making it more prominent on the top of the forum listing.

DrBowtie said:
For general non-trad issues such as coping with going back to school, paying for it, family issues, I think the current non-trad forum will provide more than enough support and advice.

For more specific dental school issues, they can be answered within a thread in the pre-dental forums.

I think I am starting to understand. I am sure I am not the first to bring up the idea of additional nontrad forums (and probably not the last). It's nice to get some insight into forum organization and realize that a lot of thought has gone into making this site accessible and logical. Thanks.

DrBowtie said:
As a test for your idea however, why not create a generic non-trad pre-dents thread and see if it takes off?

Good idea. I think it is evident from the poll that there is not a great desire to fragment the Pre-Dental forums with the addition of a nontrad forum. The only issue I can see is that catch-all threads tend to become incoherent after a while (too many issues going in too many different directions).

I'll think about it, it may be best to leave well enough alone.

DMDreaming · Oct 2, 2008

I would love a non-trad dental forum! Although some of my areas of interest overlap with the more traditional students, there are some areas only another non-trad could appreciate. Some of these include: financial aid issues for dental students with families, financing a dental education in general when you have debt from previous life experience, where to find quality child care during dental school, what areas of life experience are meaningful on a personal statement or an interview,..... I've seen posts by other non-trads trying to hash out these and other issues from a non-trad point of view and the threads have either been hijacked or the OP was made to feel like an idiot by others who cannot relate to the different set of circumstances non-trads may be dealing with. I'm all for a place dental non-trads can come together for advice and support!

Ceegee · Oct 7, 2008

I don't know if its too late, but a non-trad dental forum would be excellent!
When I first came to the site, I was looking specifically for info and help with non-trad issues and most posts in the non-trad forum are about medicine.
As previous posters have mentioned, we have a whole other realm of issues to consider, so it would be nice to be able to exchange ideas here!

Addition of Predental Nontraditional Student Forum?

Should SDN add a Predental Nontraditional Studen Forum?

Yes.

No.

bjhath

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Contach

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hoss19

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bjhath

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Contach

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lemoncurry

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DrBowtie

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